My Media My Ads (2014)

Viacom International Media Networks Northern Europe examines the media use and advertising effects on children

– Television is leading in terms of usage and advertising effects

– Cross-media campaigns have higher advertising impact

– 2,800 children aged between six and 13 years in six European countries participated

2.800 children and their parents from Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden participated in the latest survey on media use by Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Northern Europe. The study shows that today’s 6-13 year olds are truly the first “digital natives”: televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones are now as common as having breakfast and brushing your teeth. In almost all interviewed households in Northern Europe TVs and computers or laptops can be found (99 or 98%), 9 out of 10 households own a smartphone, 74% own a tablet. Especially in Germany, the use of tablets and smartphones has risen sharply in the last wee while. A year ago only 6% of children had their own tablet, today 21% own one. The smartphone ownership rate rose from 26 to 41%.

Children are very firm in dealing with technical devices, they use these devices naturally in their daily lives – either singularly or while multitasking – and are often very free in choosing the content. The survey showed that the average screen usage is 210 minutes on a week day, on the weekend the use is as much as 4 hours. Television with an average of 88 minutes daily screen time takes up the main part, followed by computer / laptop (57 minutes), tablet (53 minutes) and smartphone (40 minutes). For brands, it is therefore more and more important to offer young media users individual concepts across all the different media devices.

TV advertising has the strongest impact

Advertising is part of the daily routine when it comes to media and communication of „digital natives“. Advertising and its messages are often subject of the parent-child-discussion and determine the purchase behavior across all sectors. In all countries, TV is not only the medium with the highest usage, but also the medium with the highest advertising recall: More than eight out of ten children in Germany recall advertisements on TV, half of those are saying they often or very often watch TV ads. Most importantly, the study shows that the acceptance of television advertising is very clearly confirmed by the parents.

In addition, about half of the 6-13 year old users are familiar with advertising on laptops or computers. Slightly less kids are prone to advertising on mobile devices or on tablets: Only one in five children says, he or she remembers advertising on their smartphone or tablet. So reaching children through online devices obviously gives room for improvement given the usage rates – especially since children are open for advertising on mobile and wireless devices: 37 percent of young users say they click at least occasionally on online advertising.

Higher advertising impact through cross-media campaigns

The study also shows: cross media campaigns have a much higher impact on children than mono-media campaigns. The advertising effect was tested extensively on 120 children in Germany using eye tracking, facial coding and interviews. Result: The uplift measured by cross-media campaigns is significantly higher than the sum of individual effects. The study also shows: After watching a TV spot children spend more time watching online advertising formats (+ 5% for display ads, 12% for video ads). In addition, after previously having had TV contact, considerably more positive emotions were measured during the reception of online advertising (+ 40%).